Various Choices of Home Extensions

If you are considering home extensions you surely know that it is a huge investment, but at the same time it’s a worthwhile investment as well. It is actually the same as investing in the health and safety of the residents and guests. Home extensions are your only choice if you are looking to add more living space to your existing home, or make some structural changes to make better use of the space available at your home. Below mentioned are some common types of house extensions done by house owners:

• Porches: These are small extensions to the house in the form of one small room. These are quite simple extensions which may just need brick walls, small columns, doors and windows. However, one can make porches of any size as desired depending of the area, the layout of the land, the size of the house, the placement of the house door and many other things. Porches also have a basic electric connection.

• Conservatories: Think greenhouses. These are simple structures made of metal like aluminium for structure and glass for the sun room. Wood is also used for structural materials in many cases.

• Sunroom: This can be compared with green houses and conservatories with a few differences. Sunroom has solid brick walls, solid roof but long glass windows for giving a large look out space for the residents and guests. This is a common choice of home extensions in homes with large gardens and lawns attached.

• Extending the ground floor by one room or storey: These are extensions of rooms built on the side of the existing house to add more living space. If there are basements attached to the main home building and if the owner wants to extend the basement along with the home extension, then this can also be done easily. There is however some things to consider before considering a single storey extension. The size of the home extension must not pose any problems to the neighbors. The nature of the roof of the new extension also has to be compatible with the building. The position of drainage pipes and sluices is also something to be considered before making single storey home extensions.

• Making a multi storey home extension: In some cases, home owners need a large amount of living space if they do not have enough room space available. These extensions are added above the original property for easy access but some things to consider are problems caused to neighbors. Getting prior permission from the local authorities before ordering a multi storey home extension is strongly advised.

• Construction of rooms above the existing structure: This is also called making over structures. Although exciting it does not come without problems. In most cases the basic structure is not built with the thought of accommodating additional floors or rooms on top. As such the depth of foundation and the strength of the walls are limited. This greatly limits this type of extension projects. The solution to such home extensions project is to dig down the existing structure to strengthen it. The problem is considerable if the over structure is being built on top of the kitchen or the garage. These are some of the vulnerable areas of the home where the depth is not as much as that of the main house. These areas need to be dug in further and their foundations made stronger.

• Extensions of the basement and the loft: These are popular choices for home extensions because they cost considerably less. Making conversions of the cellar or the loft is indeed much cheaper.